The 31-year-old MC explains that Hip Hop Since 1978 CEO G. Roberson came to her a couple months ago with the news that Beyoncé was interested in her remixing "Flawless."

"After I got proper medical help and started breathing again, I was like, 'What?'" Nicki quips. "She sent me a version that she wanted. She told me, 'I want you to be you. I don't want you to hold back.' I said, 'You sure?' She said, 'Yeah. I want you to just be you and do you.' … I recorded the verse in New York, and she stopped by the studio. She was such a sweetheart. She was hyping me up, like, 'Yeah, do your thing. Don't hold back. Go in.' And I said, 'OK, alright.'"

Apparently, working with Beyoncé was always a dream for Nicki. "When I was putting out mixtapes and stuff, I would always remix her stuff," she continues. "I figured that eventually we would do something together."

But her hope waned in recent years: "I thought it would never happen 'cause I felt like if she was going to ask me, she would have asked me. I think the stars aligned the right way. We are just in the right places in our careers that it makes sense now. I feel like, with the release to her last album, her records are geared to what I do now, and so it is what it is."